The present invention relates to an article conveying method and apparatus in which carriages which hold articles are carried to a discharge station during which time articles held in holding units are shifted to discharge units and discharged.
There are many commercially available devices which select and package articles held in an endless recirculating distributing conveyer in accordance with weight. For example, an egg selecting and packaging device measures the weight of eggs, transfers to the distributing conveyer, and causes same to carry them away one by one in a single row. However, since these devices are intended only to distribute eggs, they function only as such. Once an egg is discharged at the discharge station, the conveyer circulates around its passageway to an egg supply position to handle the next egg.
According to this conventional method, one article is transferred to the distributing conveyer at the transfer position and carried away, so that its processing capability is limited.
In such selecting and packaging devices of this type, a multiplicity of grips are attached to the endless chain to circulate, grip selected articles sequentially at a first position and discharge them sequentially at a second position and drop them into a packaging container sequentially (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,201). Each grip includes a grip member formed integral with an end of an arm and a second grip member to push an article against the former grip member. The article is discharged when the second grip member is opened.
If the distributing conveyer of the endless chain is moved at high speed to improve the capability of handling articles, there is the problem that the positions where the articles fall vary due to the directions of the articles gripped along the grip members. There is another problem that when an article is discharged, the second grip member bounds to make contact with the falling article to change the expected position where the article falls. At the position where the article is discharged, the packaging container is beforehand placed. If the article cannot fall on a predetermined position in the container, it would hit on another article already accommodated in the container or hit on a place which is different from the place where the article is to be held in the container to thereby damage or break the article. Thus, the handling capability is limited.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an article handling method and apparatus for conveying a plurality of articles simultaneously and shifting them in the passageway of article conveyance instead of receiving and handling a single article.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an article conveying method in which articles are held by a carriage provided on an endless recirculating distributing conveyer and discharged at a discharge station positioned in the passageway of the conveyer, the carriage including a discharge unit for discharging an article at the discharge station and a holding unit for holding another article until the discharge unit discharges the article, comprising the steps of: shifting the another article held by the holding unit to the discharge unit during the time when the carriage is carried to the next discharge station after the discharge unit discharges the article at the first discharge station to discharge the another article at the next discharge station.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a carriage comprising: discharge unit provided swingably on a plate fixed to a recirculating chain and having a gripping unit at an end; and a holding unit having an arm turnable from a first position to a second position along a guide passageway, the arm being pivoted at one end to a lower end of the plate, a holding element provided at the other end of the arm such that an opening in the holding element faces upwardly at all times, whereby when the holding element of the holding unit moves to a gripping position, the discharge unit turns downward to causes the gripping unit to grip an article held by the holding element of the holding unit.
In more detail, it is an object of the present invention to provide an article conveying apparatus, comprising: a first and a second feed conveyer for feeding articles; a distributing conveyer having a carriage including a plurality of discharge units disposed at equal intervals on the side of an endless recirculating chain disposed before the first feed conveyer so as to traverse the same, the discharge unit having a gripping unit for gripping an article at an end of a vertically movable arm, and a holding unit provided below each discharge unit and having a holding element at an end of an arm movable to one and the other side of a guide passageway such that an opening in the holding element faces upwardly at all times; and a plurality of packaging conveyers provided halfway through the passageway of the distributing conveyer: and an article conveying apparatus comprising: a recirculating conveyer provided on the side of an endless recirculating chain disposed before the second feed conveyer so as to traverse same and overlapping with the passageway of the distributing conveyer, the recirculating conveyer including an arm a portion of which is movable vertically and has a holding unit; and a plurality of packaging conveyers provided halfway through the passageway of the distributing conveyer.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide, in a selector for selecting articles held by a distributing conveyer halfway through the passageway of the distributing conveyer according to the physical characteristic of the articles, an article conveying apparatus comprising: a first recirculating conveyer for conveying a first article fed by a feed unit; a second recirculating conveyer for conveying a second article fed by a second feed unit; and an endless recirculating distributing conveyer having a portion parallel and adjacent to the respective passageways of the first and second recirculating conveyers, the distributing conveyer including a carriage which includes a discharge unit for discharging the first and second articles and a holding unit for holding the first article until the discharge unit discharges the second article.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an article conveying apparatus comprising means for shifting the first article held by the holding unit to the discharge unit after the discharge unit discharges the second article at a first discharge station during the time when the carriage is conveyed to the next discharge station in order to discharge the first article at the next discharge station.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an article conveying apparatus comprising a carriage including means for discharging a first article at a discharge station and means for holding a second article until the discharging means discharges the first article, the discharge station being positioned in a passageway of an endless recirculating distributing conveyer; the holding means including first connecting means for connecting to the distributing conveyer, second connecting means for connecting an accommodating unit having an opening facing upwardly and holding an article therein, an arm having one end at which the first connecting means is provided turnably and the other end at which the second connecting means is provided turnably, and attitude maintaining means for maintaining the opening of the accommodating unit so as to face upwardly at all times when the arm turns around the first connecting means, the accommodating unit being positioned at a position for holding an article when the arm is turned around of the first connecting means away from an article shift position to take a substantially horizontal attitude and at the article shifting position when the arm is turned around the first connecting means away from the article holding position to take a substantially horizontal attitude.
It is an object of the present invention to provide to a degripping apparatus comprising: an attaching member fixed to an endless recirculating traveling means; a rotational shaft supported on the attaching member; a gripping arm pivoted on the rotational shaft, extending in the direction where the arm intersects with the rotational shaft, having an article griping mechanism at one end and turned in accordance with the rotation of the rotational shaft; and a drive arm fixed to the rotational shaft, extending in the direction where the drive arm intersects with the rotational shaft, having engaging means at one end and rotating the rotational shaft by the turning of the drive arm, whereby when the gripping arm is turned by means of the rotation of the rotational shaft from a position where the gripping arm is parallel to the direction of movement of the traveling means to a position where the gripping arm is perpendicular to the direction of movement of the traveling means, the gripping mechanism degrips the article, the gripping mechanism including a pair of opposing gripping members provided turnably longitudinally of the gripping arm at an end of the gripping arm, the gripping members having connecting portions meshing and pivoted with each other, whereby when one of the gripping members is turned, the other gripping member is also turned so that the gripping members open and close.
It is another object of the present invention to provide the degripping apparatus comprising: an actuating member having one end engaged with the opposing gripping members pivoted at an end of the gripping arm for gripping an article and another end extending above the gripping arm, the actuating member and the gripping members having the same pivotal shaft; a control member pivoted to the gripping arm for raising the actuating member upwardly around the shaft at all times; and the control member actuating the actuating member when the gripping members are opened to degrip the gripped article.
When articles are distributed, a process which conveys articles at high speed is employed in order to improve the handling capability. However, the conveyance speed is limited depending on conveyed articles, so that the handling capability cannot be improved.
According to the article conveying method of the present invention, that problem is solved, the throughput is doubled even if the articles are carried at the same speed as that employed conventionally.
An article conveying method according to the present invention changes the conventional concept of distributing articles and provides a new form of article conveyance.
Especially, the present invention provides a shift device for shifting articles in the conveyance passageway to therby maintain the accommodating unit so as to have an article receiving opening facing upwardly at all times to realize stabilized conveyance and transfer of articles.
According to the article degripping apparatus of the present invention, the article fall position is fixed even if an article is carried at high speed. When the article is discharged, the gripping members do not bound to make contact with the falling article. Thus, the article is accommodated stably in a concavity in a packaging container placed downward.
Other aspects and advantageous of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings illustrating by way of example the features of the present invention.